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I’ve had this recipe saved for a while because my baby girl is the biggest fan of Panera. I used to be, but sadly, they keep changing the menu and their prices keep rising or the portions get smaller.

Its reached the point where Panera is her reward meal, always the mac n cheese, but I’ve been hoping for a copycat recipe! I finally found this one and girls weekend is the perfect time to try it out.

Recipe requirements:

1 lb shells

2 C sharp, white cheddar cheese

1 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 C flour

1 C milk

2 C heavy cream

1/4 C butter

Start by melting your butter, then whisking in your flour. Add the milk, cream, salt, and pepper. Mix well and let simmer. I actually grated my own cheese for this, so wow for that! Add in the cheese, stirring as it melts.

Side note: this recipe was way too cheesy, even for my baby girl, so next time I’ll be cutting the amount of cheese to 1C.

I’ve discovered an amazing recipe for sweet and sour chicken and it’s always a hit when I make it. The only down side is that it takes FOREVER to make, so I have to save it for days with no after school activities. Whenever my kids stay with my parents, they rave about Nana’s orange chicken. She gets a kit to make it, which is kind of a cheat to me, so I had to find something different!

Stupid easy orange chicken

Most of my dishes end up looking messy, but this was a big hit.

To make this stupid easy orange chicken, you need four things:

1) chicken (obviously)

2) sweet orange marmalade (I used Smuckers 13oz)

3) barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Sweet and Spicy 18oz)

4) soy sauce (I use Kikoman)

Start by cubing your chicken and cooking it in a frying pan. Once its cooked, dump in the whole bottle of barbecue sauce, the marmalade, and 4Tbsp of soy sauce. Stir until it’s all mixed together and let it simmer while you make rice.

Serve over rice and enjoy! My kids loved this. This is actually my second time testing this out, and I can tell you I’m not an orange chicken fan. I’ll deal with it a time or two every month though because the kids love it and it’s easy to make. Can we say #momlife ??

I had such high hopes for this dessert. It looked amazing on the original site, but I was not super impressed with the turn out. My pictures never look as pretty as the originals, but even the taste of this one was a little underwhelming.
It was a lot of work! This cake requires planning ahead, which I don’t mind. You make the cheesecake at least a day in advance.

I’ve never made cheesecake before, so this part was kind of fun. It also gave me a chance to visit a friend that I haven’t seen in a while, as I needed to borrow a springform pan.
After you have the cheesecake layer made, you have to make the two chocolate cake layers. Then put your cake together:

I was getting excited at this point. How freaking yummy does it look? Delicious, right?
Then you make the frosting for the cake, which, after following the recipe, was runny and impossible to use:

I checked the notes on the blogger’s site, and they said you may have to add more powdered sugar to get a good texture. Recipe called for 4 cups of powdered sugar, and I ended up using almost a full two pound bag to get the right texture.
The ganache had an overly thick texture, also difficult to use. But we persevered and finished the cake:

We finally dug in on Thanksgiving, our Thanksgiving was on Friday thanks to work, and the overall opinions were:
Chiara ate the frosting and ganache.
Arthur ate everything except the cheesecake.
Tony enjoyed it, but said he’s had better cheesecake and the frosting was really thick.
I ate one piece and was unimpressed.

The best part about this recipe was the link to her caramel sauce recipe. This was delicious! Caramel sauce was needed for this recipe for both the frosting and the drizzling on top. I have been using the excess for apple dipping!

I’m not posting the recipe as I usually do, mainly because it is super involved. I will not be trying this cake again. It looks amazing on the original site, and I am very disappointed it didn’t come out as intended. It’s a lot of work for a dessert!

This was delicious! The amazing blogger had this recipe floating around on Pinterest, so this was a quick pin and make for me. I pinned it before going to work, picked up the few ingredients and made it the next day.

To start with, take your chicken breasts and sprinkle with your salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Put them in the crock pot and put the minced garlic and chopped onions over the top.
Next, you need to melt the butter on the stove, stir in chicken broth and flour. Add in a sprinkle of salt and pepper. The directions say to hold off on the veggies till the end, but I put my veggies in here.

Let it cook on low for 6 hours
At the 6 hour mark, shred your chicken. I normally hate shredding chicken, but all I had to do was stab the chicken and it came apart.

After your chicken is shredded, open up your biscuits and cut them into quarters.

Throw the biscuit pieces into your crock pot and let it cook for another 2 hours on low.

This was delicious! The kids didn’t care for it, but they get weird with new stuff. Tony ate two bowls at dinner and took the leftovers for lunch today, so he was a big fan. We’ll definitely be making this again!

I’ll say this up front, mine did not come out anywhere near as pretty as the original blogger’s did, but I have never claimed to be a food photographer. More to the point, I can’t present food to be photogenic, but it tastes delicious!

Start by melting your butter together with the olive oil. Once the butter is all melted is when you would add your onions if you are using them. Garlic in the pot next. Sorry the picture is dark!

Put your cream cheese in the pot. Original blogger said to cut the cream cheese into cubes, but I’m lazy, so I just stirred it in. Once it’s all liquid, add your buffalo sauce. This is where you would add the additional hot sauce if you so desire.

Smear a little of your buffalo mixture on the bottom of your casserole dish, then lay your lasagna noodles on the sauce.

Add your shredded chicken to the remaining sauce and mix it all up.

Put half of your chicken mixture on top of your base noodles, then half of your ranch. I just spread some, not measuring, in my usual estimating manner. Place another layer of noodles, then repeat with the chicken mixture and ranch.

After using the last of your chicken mixture and ranch, put a final layer of noodles on top, then layer with your mozzarella.

Place in your 350° oven for 25-35 minutes. I only did 20 minutes. The cheese had melted perfectly, I knew the chicken was already cooked, so I figured that would be good. It was delicious! Arthur devoured his, he’s a big fan of spicy food, Tony inhaled his, I think he was just really hungry, I loved it too. Chiara was the only one who didn’t eat it, but she’s not a big fan of spicy food.

Definitely check out the original site, as they feature much better pictures, and be sure to try this recipe, it’s delicious!

I know that I’ve originally blogged about 7-11 Cherry Slurpees, they were delicious, but a little watery. I like my Slurpees nice and slushy! Then I was looking to make some today with my kids and realized that I’m a moron. I had added a full extra cup of club soda! No wonder it was watery!
Original recipe credit belongs to The Budget Savy Diva.

Mix 1 cup of your club soda with the kool-aid, sugar and grenadine in a blender until it’s well combined. Add in your ice and blend till smooth. The directions say to just add the other cup of club soda and stir, but I blended it, taking no chances on watery Slurpees!

The kids kept telling me the blender was too loud, but I’m sure they’ll find it more exciting as they get older. Mommy sure gets excited about pulling the blender out!

Though the blender may have been loud, they still loved the drinks! They didn’t get to taste the sugary goodness the last time I made them, but they made up for it today, drinking most of the batch themselves.
Enjoy your summer everyone! Have a Slurpee!

I feel obligated to point out that I am not one of those people who take stunning shots of food! You might have noticed! Maybe it’s just that the food I make, while delicious, was never meant to be photographed…… This is Tony’s all time favorite dessert from Applebee’s, so I knew I’d have to try this recipe!
This delicious recipe came from Get Off Your Butt and Bake.
To make your brownie batter you need:
•1/2 tsp baking powder
•1/8 tsp baking soda
•1/8 tsp salt
•1 cup flour (she said sifted, which I didn’t do)

There was not a lot of batter once it was all said and done, hardly enough to layer the bottom of my 9×9 baking dish.

The batter tasted good, so onward we go!
Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.

*A tip from my mistake* The center may seem a little squishy, but do not continue baking or your brownie will be very tough to chew!

On to the sauce part!
•3/4 cup maple syrup (she said to use real maple syrup, but I used the Great Value stuff and it was delicious)
•1/2 cup butter
•3/4 cup brown sugar
•1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Great the maple syrup and add your butter. One butter is melted, add in the brown sugar and stir until it’s all dissolved. Add the walnuts last.

Put your brownie on a plate, scoop some ice cream, drizzle the sauce over the top and enjoy!
As stated, my brownies were a little tough to chew. Round two with this batch led me to crumbling up my brownie, adding a few scoops of ice cream and then sauce.